More than two dozen Colorado water systems exceed EPA's new limits on “forever chemicals”

“This is a big positive development because there hasn’t been a limit here,” Coghill said. “It’s a big step to say these public water systems have to do this.”

The EPA announced the new limits after years of debate between regulators, environmentalists and water providers, who could be on the hook for costly upgrades to their systems to filter out the chemicals.

While the federal government is providing some money to help water districts come into compliance, it will be a drop in the bucket. And that money is designated for smaller utilities and water suppliers in disadvantaged areas.

Martin Kimmes, Thornton’s water treatment and quality manager, said the city plans to build special systems to pull PFAS chemicals from the water supply by 2027. For now, the estimated cost ranges from $40 million to $150 million, depending on whether the city decides to add a filtration system to one or both of its water treatment plants.

Now the city at least knows the standards it must meet as it plans to build, he said.

“Obviously it’s going to be a financial burden on our ratepayers,” Kimmes said. “But it’s better to be able to know and strategize and know how much it’s going to cost.”

Thornton does not want to shift the entire financial burden onto its customers, Kimmes said.

“We would like the polluters to pay for this or government assistance to help our customers pay for this,” he said. “It’s going to be very expensive.”

Last year, Thornton sued dozens of producers of forever chemicals in U.S. District Court in South Carolina, blaming them for contamination in the city’s drinking water.

Thornton draws water from the Platte River to supply drinking water to more than 155,000 people. The city was forced to close wells that supplied drinking water because of groundwater contamination, Kimmes said. It also blends water from different sources to dilute the PFAS concentrations. Those measures have helped the city drastically reduce its PFAS levels, which are tested monthly.

So far, shutting off wells hasn’t diminished the city’s water supply, but it could be impacted if the region experiences a severe drought, Kimmes said.

The Suncor Energy refinery in Commerce City dumps PFAS into the Sand Creek, which flows into the Platte River, and a new water-pollution permit approved last month by the state health department set for the first time a 70-parts-per-trillion limit on the amount of PFAS the facility can discharge into the creek.

That new water permit still must be approved by the EPA. However, the agency’s new rules won’t impact Suncor because they only apply to the nation’s drinking water supply.

Still, Coghill said he and members of other environmental groups want the state to push Suncor’s PFAS limits even lower because the company contributes to the drinking water pollution. Earthjustice represents three environmental groups in an administrative appeal on the new water permit.

“From our perspective, it’s incumbent on the state to also control the sources of PFAS in rivers and streams to help those cities and towns and to reduce the load on them,” Coghill said.

Colorado for years has been trying to get a handle on how much of the state’s drinking water is contaminated by PFAS after the chemical leached into groundwater, rivers and canals. A groundwater survey in 2019 found contamination in groundwater in metro Denver was much more widespread than previously known.

The Colorado General Assembly is considering a bill this session that would ban the sale of consumer products that contain forever chemicals.